BILL NUMBER: AB 2867	CHAPTERED  07/05/00

	CHAPTER   82
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE   JULY 5, 2000
	APPROVED BY GOVERNOR   JULY 5, 2000
	PASSED THE SENATE   JUNE 15, 2000
	PASSED THE ASSEMBLY   JUNE 15, 2000
	AMENDED IN SENATE   JUNE 15, 2000
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   MAY 25, 2000

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Lowenthal
   (Coauthors:  Assembly Members Alquist, Aroner, Cedillo, Corbett,
Cox, Davis, Ducheny, Hertzberg, Honda, Jackson, Kuehl, Longville,
Romero, Steinberg, Thomson, Torlakson, Villaraigosa, Wiggins, and
Wildman)
   (Coauthors:  Senators Alarcon, and Perata)

                        MARCH 6, 2000

   An act to add Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 17998) to Part
1.5 of Division 13 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to
housing.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2867, Lowenthal.   Code Enforcement Incentive Program.
   Existing law contains various provisions relating to building
standards and code enforcement.
   This bill would establish the Code Enforcement Incentive Program
pursuant to which the Department of Housing and Community Development
would make funds, upon appropriation by the Legislature, available
as matching grants to cities, counties, and cities and counties to
increase staffing dedicated to local building code enforcement
efforts.  The bill would require the department to award the grants
on a competitive basis, as specified, and would exempt the grants
from provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act.
   The bill would also require that grant recipients submit a report
to their local legislative bodies and to the department regarding the
results of their expanded code enforcement efforts and would require
the department to summarize the results and transmit the reports to
the Legislature by December 31, 2003.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 17998) is added to
Part 1.5 of Division 13 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:

      CHAPTER 8.  CODE ENFORCEMENT INCENTIVE PROGRAM

   17998.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
   (a) The Department of Housing and Community Development reports
that one in every eight dwelling units in the state is substandard
and that unless health and safety problems are corrected,
habitability conditions generally deteriorate until the units become
life threatening and uninhabitable and must be removed from the
housing stock through closure or demolition.
   (b) California is experiencing a housing shortage of significant
proportions, particularly in the affordable housing sector.  The
state and many local governments are funding affordable housing from
a variety of sources at substantial costs.  It is ill advised to
neglect timely code enforcement responsibilities and thus lose
housing that could have been retained.
   (c) The lack of code enforcement on a single dwelling unit can
lead to the deterioration of an entire neighborhood:  the substandard
or abandoned unit becomes a magnet for crime, vandalism, fires, and
other activities that rapidly infect the surrounding homes and
neighborhood.
   (d) Many local governments endeavor to fulfill their statutory
responsibility for code enforcement.  However, local governments with
a higher percentage of lower income households with families, living
in older, overcrowded housing stock, exacerbated by the neglect of
absentee slumlords, bear a disproportionate code enforcement cost and
responsibility than that of more affluent communities.
   (e) Existing law provides building standards to assure decent,
safe, and sanitary housing for all Californians.
   (f) Resources for code enforcement at the local level are
frequently allocated to code enforcement activities, which generate
fees to pay for regulatory services, including building and permit
inspections.
   (g) The enforcement of building codes for existing housing is
frequently performed only on a complaint-by-complaint basis and
frequently there is insufficient funding for the abatement of
existing violations.
   17998.1.  The Department of Housing and Community Development,
upon appropriation by the Legislature for this purpose, shall make
funds available as matching grants to cities, counties, and cities
and counties to increase staffing dedicated to local building code
enforcement efforts.  The funds shall be subject to all of the
following provisions:
   (a) Grants shall be made for a three-year period.
   (b) The city, county, or city and county shall provide a local
match of 25 percent in the first year, 50 percent in the second year,
and 75 percent in the third year.
   (c) The maximum grant to a single recipient shall not exceed one
million dollars ($1,000,000).
   (d) Funds may be used to supplement, but shall not supplant,
existing local funding for code enforcement.
   (e) On or before June 1, 2003, grant recipients shall submit a
report to their local legislative bodies and to the department
regarding the results of their expanded code enforcement efforts.
The department shall summarize the results and transmit the reports
to the Legislature by December 31, 2003.
   (f) The department may use up to 5 percent of the funds
appropriated by the Legislative for administering the grants during
the three-year period.
   (g) The department shall award the grants on a competitive basis
with criteria to be established and specified in a "Notice of Funding
Availability."  The criteria shall be weighted for local government
applicants with high percentages of lower income households, with
older, overcrowded housing stock and absentee owners.  The criteria
shall also be weighted for applications that propose to identify and
prosecute owners with habitual, repeated, multiple code violations
that have remained unabated beyond the period required for abatement.
  Grants awarded pursuant to this chapter shall not be subject to the
requirements of Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part
1 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
